Hackaday Prize Entry: FabDoc is Version Control for Project Images

FabDoc is an interesting concept that attempts to tackle a problem many of us didn’t realize we had. There are plenty of version control systems for software, but many projects also have a hardware element or assembly process. Those physical elements need to be documented, but that process does not easily fit the tools that make software development and collaboration easier. [Kevin Cheng] sums FabDoc up as “a system to capture time-lapse pictures as pre-commits.”

With FabDoc a camera automatically records the physical development process, allowing the developer to focus on work and review later. The images from the camera are treated as pre-commits. Upon review, the developer selects relevant key images (ignoring dead ends or false starts) and commits them. It’s a version control and commit system for the physical part of the development process. The goal is to remove the burden of stopping the work process in order to take pictures, automatically record the development process and attach it to a specific project, and allow easy management of which images to commit.

The current system uses a Raspberry Pi Zero with a camera mounted on safety glasses, and some support software. Some thought has certainly gone into making the system as easy to use and manage as possible; after setting up a repository, scanning a QR code takes care of telling the system what to do and where to put it. The goal is to make FabDoc fast and easy to use so that it can simply work unattended.

We saw a visual twist on version control some time ago with a visual diff for PCBs, which was a great idea to represent changes between PCB designs visually, diff-style. It’s always exciting to see someone take a shot at improving processes that are easy to take for granted.

I wonder if the software will work on some of the PI Clones that are a lot cheaper.
I have a lot of them. I could of used something like this on the Rotary Antenna assembly that I just put together. I had to stop a few time to take pictures. Now I have to find the time to put it up here. This is the part that I hate. ( A lot.). I just want to get to the next project. My list is so so long.

I was thinking of the same thing kind of but for size I have a mini comp video camera and using a 5.8ghz transmitter and receiver. so that I could mount on the side of my glasses. one of my next project.